Russian stocks mixed amid US sanctions, rising oil, strong ruble

MOSCOW, Aug 3 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Thursday on the back of U.S. President Donald Trump signing a bill on the new sanctions, rising oil prices and the ruble’s appreciation, analysts said.

The MICEX fell 0.01% to 1,965.29 and the RTS rose 0.78% to 1,029.41.

“After some fluctuations the leading Russian stock indices are again trying to consolidate on the positive territory. Mixed trading is caused first of all by volatile dynamics on the oil market, where Brent quotations are currently fluctuating above the U.S. $52 per barrel notch,” InstaForex analyst Igor Kovalyov said.

The analyst also said the growth of investor activity on the domestic floors was partially curbed by Russia’s Services Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) falling to 52.6 points in July from 55.5 points in June.

The negative sentiment from the introduction of the new U.S. sanctions was slightly smoothed by rating agency S&P saying the toughening of the sanctions will not affect Russia’s sovereign rating, Kovalyov said.

Analysts noted that the signed bill on the new sanctions did not seriously affect the market, as it was prepared for the event already several weeks ago.

“New sanctions have already been taken into account in quotations of Russian shares and the value of the Russian currency. Therefore, the fact that Trump signed the law on sanctions, had no serious impact on the Russian market,” Gleb Zadoya, head of research department at Analitika Online, said.

State-controlled telecom operator Rostelecom’s common shares gained 1.05% after the company reported that its net profit soared 75% on the year to 2.8 billion rubles in April–June, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards.

Kuzbass Fuel Company (KTK) rose 0.72% after reporting that it switched to an IFRS net profit of 26 million rubles in January–June and boosted coal output 9% on the year to 6.04 million tonnes in the period.

Below are the MICEX’ five most active stocks on Thursday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	+0.06	170.00	9.575
Gazprom	+0.41	119.58	2.678
Norilsk Nickel	-0.51	9095.00	2.067
Lukoil	-0.27	2930.00	1.361
Rosneft	-1.55	317.00	1.053

(60.5819 rubles – U.S. $1)

End